Beans, beans, the musical fruit...

Am I the only one who learned the "Musical Bean" song as a child?

My dad used to sing it...

Beans, beans, the musical fruit.
The more you eat, the more you toot.
The more you toot, the better you'll feel.
So, lift your leg and let them peel.

Ah....

Childhood memories.

Did I ever mention that I was kind of a tomboy?

Anywhoo...

Fast forward to the present day.

My family loves beans.

This was a major factor in our decision to put the teenage boys up in the third level.

Where you can't see them or smell them.

But...

Back to beans.

Do you know you can replace butter in your recipe with bean puree?

Yep, I don't lie. on this one anyway

I take small white beans (mine were Great Northern beans) and follow the package directions in cooking them.

Once they are all cooked up, I stick them in my food processor (blender works too) and puree them until they look like butter.

Talk about saving money and tons of fat grams!

I replace the butter in my recipes with a 1:1 ratio. So far, I have tried it in pancakes and my banana bread recipe and I have been thrilled with both results!

You can also freeze the bean puree, either in 1 cup measures (in ziplocs) or in larger containers if you will be doing a lot of baking.

If you are not used to eating a bunch of beans you might be "musical" for awhile.

But you can always sing along.

Happy cooking!

Eggs

60 eggs.

About now you are thinking, "60 eggs? That's 5 dozen, right? That's not a big deal."

Ok...

I'll be honest.

I'm talking 60 dozen.

In my defense...they were on sale after Easter.

And we go through a lot of eggs.

So, I started loading up my cart. As I did so, I became aware of a background noise.

I stopped to listen.

I realized that it was the faint sounds of my fridge, at home, starting to hyperventilate.

So, I stopped at 60 dozen.

Buying 60 dozen eggs is apparently not something that is done every day.

People tend to notice.

And stare.

It's embarrassing.

Almost as embarrassing as the time that I took eight kids with me to the store and bought a pregnancy test.

Good times...good times...

Anywhoo...

I've been freezing the eggs.

It's super easy to do.

You have to crack each egg and beat it just a wee little bit.

You can freeze each egg individually.

I do them in muffin tins.

Once they are frozen, I lift them out and put them in a bag.

Put them promptly back in the freezer so they don't stick together.

I also did 24 eggs and threw them into a gallon freezer bag.

They will be used later for scrambled eggs or for french toast.

Easy peesey!

Happy freezing!

Magic Mix

Remember when I said that I use Magic Mix to make my own Cream of Chicken soup?

Not only is it better for you...

It tastes de-lish too!

Here is how you make it (from the Utah State Extension office/Every Day Food Storage)

Magic Mix

2 1/3 cups powered milk OR 4 c. instant nonfat dry milk

1 cup flour

1 cup butter (room temperature)

Combine in a large bowl until it resembles cornmeal. My beater attachment on my KitchenAid mixer works like a charm. Store, sealed in the refrigerator until ready to use.


Cream of Chicken Soup

(Equal to one can condensed soup)

1 c. Magic Mix

3/4 c. chicken broth

1 t. dry parsley

dash onion salt

Put all the ingredients into a sauce pan over medium heat. Stir constantly with a wire whisk until mixture just comes to a boil.

That's all there is to it!

**You can use the liquid from a can of mushrooms for cream of mushroom soup. Add a few drops of Kitchen Bouquet for a darker color to this soup.

Some Thrifty Food Thoughts

Just to warn you...

These thrifty food thoughts are random like me.

I am a stay at home mom, meaning that I work inside the home, not outside.

I'm not juggling a job, family, and home. My hat off to those who do, by the way.

But, I do have a large family and I spend the majority of my time figuring out how to feed my large crew , healthy yet as cheaply as possibly.

These ideas might not work for everyone. I have five freezers and I have room to freeze lots of things. Some people might not.

My freezers are in my garage. They used to be kept in the barn, locked up until someone broke into the freezers by cutting the seals off. They took off with my casseroles, dishes and all.

Except for my meatloaf.

I'm still kind of offended by that.

It's pretty good meatloaf actually.

Humph...

Anywhoo...

Here is a list of some of the thrifty things that I do with food-

I realize that this might make me sound cheap and anal but I'm okay with that since that is the truth anyway.

I'm willing to bet that my family of 11 eats cheaper then some families of 4.

No, I'm not willing to bet any of my shoes though...

Thoughts about bread-

My family does not care for the heels of store bought bread. When I buy it, it is the day old variety. Sometimes, if I'm worried that the bread is too far gone and is in danger of molding, I will stick dry regular pieces in too.

I put the old bread in a cake pan and stick it in the oven (170 degrees) until it is dried out.

I then throw all the dried bread into a large ziploc until it fills up.

Cracker crumbs and crushed cereal (like cornflakes, Cheerios and Chex)go in here too.

I then turn it into bread crumbs.

I use my Kitchen Aid grinder attachment with the large holes. If you don't have one of these you could try a food processor, or put the dried bread in a heavy ziploc and beat it with a rolling in.

I then store the crumbs in an old ice cream container.

I have a great chicken strip recipe that I use these for.

Need Italian Bread Crumbs? Just add some garlic powder, onion powder, dried parsley and dried Italian seasonings to the dried bread crumbs.

I never buy bread crumbs anymore.

Ever have apples that get a little "punky" but aren't rotten?

Peel them, slice them thinly and then stick them in the freezer.

Once you have enough, make an apple cobbler out of them.

I have a wonderful apple cobbler recipe that calls for 4 cups apples. We times it by 4 for our family so I freeze 16 c. of apples.

**Does not work well with red delicious apples**

Bananas gone bad?

We rarely have any bananas left over to go bad.

I buy mine for 29 cents a pound that look like this-

I peel them and freeze them in ziplocs.

Marked on the front of each bag is the number of bananas within.

When you are ready to make bread, simply defrost and put in the entire contents of the bag, liquid and all. Do not drain first as that will make your bread really dry.

My banana recipe calls for 2 bananas so I freeze six bananas in a bag. That way I can make three loaves at a time.

Ever cook a turkey?

Boil the carcass in water for several hours.

The leftover meat will fall off the bones and can be used in sandwiches or in soup.

Freeze the broth and use in place of chicken broth.

Take your homemade turkey broth and mix it with Magic Mix (recipe to come) to make your own delicious and inexpensive condensed soup that can be substituted for condensed chicken soup in your recipes.

Have pears that are too mushy to eat?

Peel them and then squish them up.

Freeze the "pearsauce" and use instead of oil in baking.

Too much zucchini? Because the neighbor boy won't stop bringing them to you

Grate and freeze in amounts that your fav bread recipe calls for.

Milk approaching the expiration date?

Freeze it, in it's container and defrost to use in soup.

We love our Potato soup!

Stick a folded up paper towel in your bag of salad, it will keep it from going slimy as fast.

Buy a bag of onions and chop them all.

That way you can get all of your crying out all at the same time.

Freeze them in one cup bags to use in your fav recipes. It is so easy to pull a bag of onions out that is already chopped.

Afraid you won't be able to use up all of that bunch of parsley before it gets all slimy?

Chop it all up (my food processor works like a charm for this) and then freeze it.

My parents just gave us this celery because they didn't think they could use it all before it went bad.

I rip off each stalk, rinse it and cut off the ends.

I then put all the stalks on a cookie sheet and stick it in the freezer.

When they are frozen solid, I throw them into a ziploc and then back into the freezer.

When I want to use one, I run it under lukewarm water for 15 seconds or so and then it cuts easily.

I also cut peppers in half, cut out the seeds and then throw them on a cookie sheet that I put in the freezer.

Once frozen, they can be thrown into a ziploc bag and then back into the freezer they go.

They won't stick together and I can easily remove just the amount I want.


I once read somewhere "If you can't find it, you don't own it".

I keep a list of them items that my freezers hold and I make dinners around the items that I currently have on hand.

I am more familiar with the contents of my freezers then I am the contents of my closet. Except my shoes, of course...

Every now and again, I do an inventory of the freezers and check it against my list.

We hardly ever throw food away anymore. Which, I believe, saves us a lot of money.

I'll get some recipes up sometime in the next week or so, in case anyone is interested.

I'll also get some of my freezer meals posted too at some point.

For right now, I'm single parenting so have mercy on me be patient with me.

It's 9 against 1 right now.

That is really bad odds.

Yikes...

Apples...a recap

My dad is a genius. For real.

He can take a pile of what appears to be junk and make something worthwhile out of it.

Because he got me into this mess he is the one that ordered me the ginormous "box" of apples, he decided that he had better come up with a way to make this easier. Because he knows that I'm close to the edge, all the time, maybe.

But, whatever the reason, I'm grateful for the help.

In years past, we have just gone the old fashioned route and cut the apples up by hand, using a knife.

The amped up version? Made from junk stuff that he had laying around over at his man cave shop.

Dad took an old tire pump and attached an apple wedger. You simply put an apple on top of the wedger, pull the handle down, and presto...instant cut up apples.

Me likey. I actually hogged this machine. Because it was kinda fun.

I'm a real special kind of crazy. But, it's the good kind.

This machine took a lot of the work out of it.

Dad likes motors on things. He's a guy. Nuff said...

He took the formally hand-cranked strainer and attached a motor.

All that needed to be done was dump the cooked apples into the hopper and turn it on. Nice. My arm thanks him.

Dad is a genius but he must not think much of me because he told me to make sure that I didn't submerge the motor on this machine. The first time he said this, I thought to myself "duh". The second time he said it, I said, "Dad! How dumb do you think I am?"

To which Dad replied, "Well, sometimes, you make me wonder."

Thanks Dad.

To help cook the apples faster he brought over a commercial convection oven that he "had laying around".

Two words here people.

Pack.Rat.

But in this case, I'm grateful. We put a whole lotta apples in that oven.

My wonderful Mom spent all three days that we sauced apples in my kitchen. Mostly stirring because Dad hasn't invented anything to do that yet.

Isn't she fab?

Even my dad came over one day to check on our progress.

He usually has a grease rag stuffed in his back pocket.

Notice that he has one of my kitchen towels sticking out. I found this highly amusing.

Ahhh...beautiful...

Because we are letting the applesauce "age" we haven't eaten any of it yet.

275 quarts...gulp.

Dad wanted to know if I wanted more apples next year.

I told him to wait awhile before asking me that.

I'm still recovering from this year's crop...

A box of apples

So...I casually mentioned to my dad that I had not gotten around to canning applesauce this year.

He called the next day to tell me that he had bought a box of apples for me.

Nice, right?

My first clue that something was not normal with this should have been the words, "They are being delivered to your house."

Because, really, who needs to have a "box" of apples delivered?

My spidey sence should have gone off when I found out that there was a flat bed trailer involved in the apple delivery.

But when I was informed that a forklift was needed to unload the "box" of apples, then I knew something was amiss.

Here is a pix of my 1000 pound "box" of apples.

Guess I know what I'll be doing...for the rest of my life.

Here is what is waiting for me today

This is only half of the ironing pile...

Mom harvested her grapes and brought them ALL over to our house.

Thanks! I think.

So...ironing and juicing.

And haircuts later.

When do I get a day off? and yes, I am whining.

What We've Been Doing

Freezers full of main dishes...6

Number of meals ready to eat...150 (this is OUR size meals)

Happy, grateful mama...1

Canning...like crazy

Pears...400 pounds

Peaches...150 pounds

Sore, tired aching feet...2

Freezing veggies...too many to wrap my tired brain around

Corn...120 pounds

Green beans...120 pounds

Squash...10 quarts

Grated Zucchini because it is taking over and I can't deal with it anymore...36 quart bags

Number of parents who are praying for frost so that the squash plants die...2

Number of people in my family who love Sloppy *Tims...11

*We are a politically incorrect family and have renamed the Sloppy Joe's, Sloppy Tim's because our Joe is not "sloppy" and was offended. Our Tim, however, is very sloppy and has earned this title...for now.

I get a ton of questions regarding my style of cooking and freezing meals.

It is beyond valuable to me to have this system in place!

I can't even fathom what our grocery bill would be like if we ate out all the time or bought a lot of processed, ready-to-eat foods. I can't even remember the last time my kids had fast food. We go out to eat as a family one or two times a year. Not because I am a food snob...but because, it's expensive!

Every night my family eats a home cooked meal. And most days, I don't even cook. I can't imagine it any other way.

We eat a wide assortment of foods like, chillies, soups, casseroles, meat pies, lasagnas, burritos, sandwiches, and bean dishes.

I have a master list hanging up in the kitchen with all the meals listed and how many of each meal we have. When we pull something out of the freezer, we remove that item from the list.

Cooking in bulk is so easy...and so worth it!

I wish I would have started this years and years ago. I take our favorite recipes and times them by 2 or 3 in order to make one big enough for my family. I then times this new quantity by 4, so we can get four "our size" meals.

I make a master list of all the different ingredients needed to cook all the meals that I plan on making. I do this before I go and then organize the list into different sections, like produce, dairy, etc...

After purchasing all the food, I start cooking! I usually will chop, shred, brown or cut up all my ingredients before getting started, just to make my life easier and we all know I need lots more of that.

When done, we allow them to cool. Plastic wrap first, tinfoil second and 5 gal white garbage bag over the top and then labeled. After pulling one out of the freezer to serve, I pull everything off, put the foil back on and then stick in the oven. If the item is still frozen, I put it into a cold oven and then turn it on as to not crack my dish.

I totally encourage everyone to try cooking ahead, I can't say enough good things about it!

Lifesaver...totally!